


Speak Now

by writetheniteaway



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Becho Breakup, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Pining, Season 7 compliant, Song fic, wedding au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25131181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writetheniteaway/pseuds/writetheniteaway
Summary: Bellamy proposes to Echo. Clarke wants him to be happy.Inspired by "Speak Now" by Taylor Swift.
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 103





	Speak Now

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story about characters. Any possible allusion to current events is unintentional, It's fluffy by my standards, but we work hard to get there.

She should be happy.

This was…well hell, further than they ever thought they’d get. Sanctum was stable, there are plenty of resources to go around, and once they all agreed on that, and unified to secure a victory against the zealots on planet beta…enemy of my enemy seemed to fix a lot of problems.

Their losses were few, comparatively, and Clarke knew that any life lost was a waste, but _her_ people, not just the last survivors of the ark, or the grounders who stood with her, but _her family_ , the ones who had been through it all, had miraculously all made it through alive.

Emori had thanked her, for making sure it happened with such an intensity it made Clarke squirm. So many mistakes, and still people were thankful for her leadership. And Bellamy’s, of course. Whatever gravitational pull made them perfectly symbiotic as leaders held fast, and saw them through the worst of it for what she for the first time truly believed could be the last time.

So when a few months pass, and there’s most of a gate for New Arkadia, and the foundation dug for the ambitious tower of Polis-2, and Bellamy pulls her aside with a real, genuine smile on his face, it shouldn’t quite steal the air from her lungs when he shows her the tiny silver band cradling a gemstone that sits somewhere between blue and green.

“Am I crazy for doing this?” He asks her sincerely, knowing she, out of anyone will shoot straight with him. “Is it too…soon?”  
  


“You’ve been together over a century,” Clarke says, fixing a steady reassuring expression on her face. “And survived two apocalypses, three wars, some genocidal body snatchers and religious extremists with a technological death wish. If you made it through all that, I think it’s safe to say you don’t have to wait any longer.”

“You’ve done just as much,” Bellamy says. “And you deserve to be happy at the end of it all, too.” Her mask nearly slips. Nearly.

“I have Madi. I have you--all. My family. Sunshine, and paint and canvases and more than ten minutes go by before someone needs me to save the world, so I might actually get to use them some time.” On an impulse she will regret until her dying breath, she kisses his cheek.

“Go be happy Bellamy. We’ve earned it.”

*

Echo seems…smug as she shows off the ring to the gaggle of their friends on the front porch. Like she’d won a bet with the universe. Clarke chides herself for being hurt by something so petty, and insists to herself yet again that she has never seen Bellamy so happy, and that should be making her happy. She was almost confident that the victorious aura rolling off of Echo was simply sincere joy being distorted by Clarke’s bitterness seeping in through the large front window.

“Stop thinking so loud,” Madi says across the dining room table. “I can hear you being sad from here.”

“I’m not sad,” Clarke insists. “Why would you think that?”

Madi gave her a hard look of teenage cynicism. “You should tell him how you feel.”

“There’s nothing to tell-“

“Clarke-”

Clarke fixed her with a maternal stare, universally understood to mean _drop it_.

“Just because no one else sees it doesn’t mean _I_ don’t.” Madi continues, ignoring Clarke entirely. “I know how you felt about him when they went up to the ring, and that didn’t just go away when they came back down.”

Clarke briefly considers grounding her on the spot, but then decides against it. Decides to do better, and level with her teenager instead. “It’s complicated. So much happened between then and now. And he’s so-”

“How do you know he’s not doing what you two always do and just pretending that everything is fine instead of telling the truth?” Madi challenges. Clarke balks, so Madi presses on. “You don’t. Just talk to him Clarke. You’ve already said it all once on the radio, now just say it when he can hear you.”

“I am not ready for you to be a teenager,” Clarke sighs. “Come on, let’s get started on dinner.”

*

It’s been three weeks to the proposal, and one week until the wedding, and Clarke has not so much as said more than “good morning” to Bellamy in all that time. Madi goes out of her way to leave them alone together whenever possible, even going so far as to find reasons to get them in the same room, and no matter what comes of it Clarke can never bring herself to be more than a pleasant mirror reflecting back the joyful glow radiating off of him.

So it really does take her off guard when Echo barrels into her room, all fire and fury.

“What the hell?” Clarke asks.

“Why is your kid trying to wreck my wedding?”

“What?”

“She’s spent the last hour asking Bellamy about leaving you on the ground, and what the ring was like, and whether he ever thought you were alive, and _would he have stayed with me if you didn’t leave him in the pit?”_

Clarke sees red. “Madi!”

“What’s wrong?” Madi popped her head into the door.

“You think you’re being funny messing with people’s lives is what’s wrong,” Echo says, all venom.

“Hey,” Clarke steps between them. “She may causing trouble, but she’s my kid. So lay off.”

“But Clarke-“

“Absolutely not.” Clarke puts her hand up. “Apologize to Echo.”

“Seriously? I’m just trying to help!”

“Sorry, _Heda_ ,” Echo spits at her mockingly. “You don’t get to control everyone anymore.”

“Alright enough,” Clarke says. “Madi, apologize. Now.”

“Sorry I tried to make you happy for once!” Madi screams at Clarke before storming off. Clarke rolls her eyes in exasperation.

“Guess the apple doesn’t fall far,” Echo jabs.

“I didn’t ask her to do that,” Clarke says defensively.

“But you’re glad she did, aren’t you?”

“Of course not. Bellamy deserves to be happy. You make him happy. There’s nothing else to say.”

“Always the martyr you are,” Echo quips. “Do me a favor and just give us some space, alright? Let someone else get everything they want for a change.”

Before Clarke can reply, she’s gone.

*

“You’re going on a scouting trip, today?” Bellamy asks her intently.

“Yeah, I want to get an accurate measure of the southern border for New Arkadia. We want to have the space to expand, eventually, if we need it.” Clarke’s pulling rations from the pantry and shoving them into the bottom of her backpack slightly more aggressively than is strictly necessary.

“Clarke, why are you going on a four day trip today?” He isn’t stopping her, in fact he’s handing her supplies from the small pile on the kitchen counter that she’d accumulated.

“Because it’s going to be cold soon according to Gabriel, and I want to know what we have to work with before it gets too hard to travel.”

“I’m getting married tomorrow.”

“I know that.” She thinks she’s managed to hide the bitterness.

“You’re gonna miss one hell of a party,” He says, because he would never actually let her know that it hurt him that she didn’t want to be there.

“I’m sorry, Bellamy. I know it’s important. But everyone else needs to be there, to see what’s possible. I already know that we got our happy ending, now I’ve just got to make sure nothing goes wrong so we can keep it that way.”

“Did Echo ask you not to come?” That gets her to stop packing in such a rush.

“Why would she do that?”

He shoots her a look. She should know better than to try and play dumb with him.

“No, she didn’t ask me not to come.” It wasn’t a lie. She had in fact, demanded that Clarke not show her face anywhere near the ceremony.

“Clarke…”

Something in his voice catches, and suddenly it seems as though everything she ever wished he would say was going to come to the surface.

“Be careful,” he moves a curl behind her ear and it’s so intimate and yet so natural, as if she’d done it herself. “Cause I really don’t want to have to come save you tomorrow.”

“You be careful too,” She says with a laugh, “or I might start to think Madi was right.”

He grins at that, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. They part ways then, and Clarke manages to hold it together until he’s safely out the door before the tears start to fall.

**

“Clarke should be here,” Raven mutters, fidgeting in a borrowed dress.

“That ship sailed when we launched the rocket and she wasn’t on it,” Murphy says dryly, earning him a vicious elbow in the ribs from Emori.

“Do you ever say anything nice?” Jordan asks Murphy, but Raven shoots the two boys a look of fury and they fall silent as music starts to play across the courtyard. It was slower than what they used in the old earth movies they’d watched a hundred times on the ring, and felt vaguely like some kind of grounder sacrificial ritual was about to take place.

“Positive thoughts Raven,” She whispers to herself. Echo was her friend. Bellamy was practically her brother. They’ve been together over a century, so why does it feel wrong?

Murphy meets her eyes and it doesn’t take more than that for her to understand it to mean, _you damn well know why._

Octavia and Hope look sufficiently stunning and terrifying, painted as Azgeda attendants. Bellamy had no attachment at all to any of the customs from the ark, and so Echo had free reign to pick and choose from her past as she pleased.

Bellamy stood beneath a trellis covered in layered vines, sufficiently in awe of his bride to be, kissing Octavia’s cheek and giving Hope’s arm an affectionate squeeze when they reached him.

Echo was stunning, painted softer than he would imagine, and in a warm red dress. Luxurious by both of their cultures standards, difficult to dye and made of impractical fabric that would not wear well. Emori had given Echo the run of Kaylee’s closet, and they had both known the moment they laced up the corseted back it was the perfect choice.

Bellamy bites his lip when she reaches him, and wastes no time in taking both her hands in his.

Gaia serves as the officiant, speaking in a melodic mixture of English and Trig, a choice made more for politics than convenience. There was more to this than Bellamy and Echo, of course. Though they might claim unity as one people, history is hard to erase. The criminal, the soldier, Bloodreina’s brother, and the Azgeda spy, assassin, and grounder royalty, joining together for a lifetime. There was power in these symbols, there was hope for true unity in such an act, and Gaia held the weight of that understanding heavy as the leather-bound book in her arms. 

She comes to the moment that was the stuff of a dozen clichéd stories, and asks if there is anyone who objects to this union. She worries there may be a grounder purist, or a frightened ark survivor left to choose this moment to spoil the vision of their future, but it is nothing so simple as politics.

Clarke’s voice rings out like a shot, high and desperate and for the first time in as long as she can remember there is no mask, no role to play, no thought of what this will mean or what will come next or how it might destroy this fragile peace, only that there’s thirty yards between her and Bellamy and she’s prepared to sprint every last step but he’s met her in the middle.

She’s suddenly horrified by the hundreds of eyes on her, and just as suddenly Bellamy is towering over her, and the only face she can make out is his.

“Don’t get married today,” Clarke gasps out. “We…I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-“

“What are you doing here?” He asks her.

“Ruining everything.” She says. “Or fixing it. I don’t know. Just…” She shaking from adrenaline and embarrassment.

He looks at her hard for a minute and suddenly one hundred and twenty-nine years of waiting for this moment come rushing into his head, and that’s right because it’s exactly where he always needs her to be. He steadies her, hands strong on her arms.

“It’s ok,” He says for only her to hear. “Go home,” She’s almost afraid to meet his gaze, but there’s no room left for that fear, not when her heart is laid bare and standing right in front of her. “I’ll meet you there.”

Chaos erupts when Clarke turns to go, some cheering, others shaming her, most everyone just confused. She catches Madi’s wide triumphant smile, and Murphy and Emori trying to make their way to her while Raven is fighting to reach Echo, who Octavia and Hope have flanked defensively.

She doesn’t see Octavia ordering Bellamy away, or Gaia’s knowing look towards Indra that perhaps she had stalled when she caught site of Clarke’s silhouette on the ridge, but no one would ever know.

**

“Clarke!” Bellamy takes the stairs to the farmhouse two at a time, shrugging out of his ridiculous suit jacket and pulling the tie from his neck as he goes.

He barrels through the house and out the back door, knowing exactly where she’s likely to wait. Clarke turns in time for to see as he pulls her into a tight embrace, and suddenly she’s laughing, remembering the very first time that had happened, lifetimes ago at the gate of camp Jaha.

He laughs too, and there’s a part of him that hates himself forever for all of the pain they’ve caused, and now they’ve added to it again, today, for the most selfish of reasons. He reads it on her face, that same guilt-ridden worry, and it’s fine for him to carry but he’ll be damned if she blames herself for his own stupidity.

“I never should have-“

“I’m sorry I-“

“It’s not your-“

“It’s wrong for-“

“Clarke _stop_.” Bellamy cradles her cheek with his hands, breaking the cycle. “Stop.” The sheer intimacy of it freezes her, and it takes a moment to think to wind her hands around his wrists.

“I didn’t think you wanted this,” He says quickly, not giving her time to interrupt. “I never thought you would forgive me for leaving, for any of it-“

She laughs again, and cries, and buries herself against his chest.

“Of course I forgave you,” She murmurs. “But I couldn’t…you were happy. I wouldn’t ruin that just-“

“Just so you could be happy too?” She blushes at his assessment. “We’ve earned it, Clarke. More than earned it, if you ask me.”

“I should have said something sooner,” She insists. “Letting it get this far was cruel.”

“Echo’s strong,” He says, absolving her where perhaps he has no right to. “She would rather face a harsh truth than a soft lie, always.”

“Here we go again, justifying hurting people.”

“This isn’t like any other time. We may have done a hundred horrible things, to each other, to other people. This…this doesn’t even make the list. Choosing what you want…choosing us before what everyone else needs.”

Something snaps inside of her, and she lunges up to kiss him. He meets her halfway again, and it’s like every time he’s dreamed but so much more than he could ever hope all the same. When they’re breathless and gasping for air, he still can’t bring himself to let go of her, and she’s in no hurry to leave the safe harbor of his arms around her.

“So what do we tell them?” She says.

“That we were too busy saving their asses to figure this out,” He says wryly.

“I knew a long time ago,” She confesses.

He kisses her temple. “Me too.”


End file.
